Hannah shook her head slowly. “I don’t know, Dawn. I don’t want to fall asleep or get sick. I have a low tolerance for medication.”

“You won’t get sick, honey,” Dawn said, grabbing the cup of soda and placing it in Hannah’s free hand as she spoke. Their faces were so close that Hannah could see the small strip of adhesive that locked a pair of fake eyelashes to Dawn’s lids.

“Can I be honest with you, Hannah?” Dawn continued as Hannah studied her face, so round and healthy, her teeth too white. “You have to do this for Bee. These pills are going to get you through the ceremony with a genuine smile on your face. Bee should be focused on her wedding day, and right now she’s worried about you.

“If you take those pills now,” Dawn continued in her signature loud whisper, “you’ll have a good three or four hours and then you can go straight up to your hotel room and fall asleep. You’ll wake up in the morning perfectly rested.”

Hannah looked down at the pills, which were beginning to melt in her sweaty palm. “And I need to take all three pills? Is that the recommended dose?”

“Honey, my girls take more than this and most of them are still in their teens and weigh less than a hundred pounds.”

“And what will happen after I take them? What do they do exactly?”

“Well, nothing very noticeable,” Dawn said, revealing her victory smile as she watched Hannah pop the pills into her mouth and take a quick shot from the soda cup. “In about twenty minutes or so, you should feel calm, cool, and ready to walk down the runway. After a while the medicine wears off, and you’ll just want a good nap.”

“You mean the aisle,” Hannah said, now grinning herself. “You said ‘runway.’”

“Whatever you want to call it, sweetie,” Dawn said, her tone still light.

“Thanks, Dawn,” Hannah said softly. Dawn gave Hannah a quick wink and then about-faced and walked toward Bee so she could make her own final inspection of the bridal gown.

Hannah stood where she was, sipping the rest of her soda as she watched Dawn tend to Bee, circling the dress to see it from all sides. Dawn then leaned in and whispered something that made Bee giggle. They gave each other a quick, formal hug, barely touching so that they wouldn’t smudge each other’s faces and gowns.

Hannah smiled at the sweetness of the uncomfortable embrace. She considered joining them, but she couldn’t stop herself from indulging just one more time. First, she checked her phone. No Natalie. Then she walked over to the window to do one final search from above, eyeing the top of each head on the lawn below to see if she recognized Tom’s hair, the black-licorice tuft that she used to run her fingers through as he fell asleep in her lap.

Hannah had never seen such dark hair on such a fair-skinned person before meeting Tom at Syracuse. It was even darker than Vicki’s hair, which was inky against her white skin.